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Appearances Can Deceive

Our Fairfield Satellite of the Faith Christian Outreach Church meets in the Civic Center auditorium. The seats on the side wings angle toward the center of the platform. A few years ago, David hurt his left knee. The front angled seat on the left side had twice as much leg room as the regular seats and two steps down to it. We started sitting there after his injury and he was able to elevate his foot while the knee healed.

The keyboard is on that side of the platform. When Pastor says, “Let me pray for you,” I slip out of the front seat, go behind the curtain and fire up the keyboard for the altar call. (The keyboard shuts off after 10 minutes. I have to restart and reset it.)

Ezekiel 40:44, “Outside the inner gate were the chambers for the singers in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the east gate facing north.” Modern English Version

Yesterday, I was not sitting there. I poured a cup of coffee and realized I had forgotten cream – and a lid! While I was retrieving them, our granddaughter came up to sit by her “Pa.” Her Bible bag bumped the cup, spilling sugared coffee all over. We got paper towels and cleaned it up but my feet still stuck to the floor.

I told David we needed to move back but he didn’t want to give up the seat with the leg room. (The coffee didn’t reach his seat.)

I moved back a few rows and settled into an end seat for the sermon. Pastor Monte Knudsen preached on marriage and it embarrassed me because I wasn’t sitting next to my husband. It looked like we were fighting and mad at each other!

To make matters worse, David kept loudly saying, “Amen” to the points Pastor Monte was making. Every time he said, “Amen” I imagined everyone looking over at our seats and thinking we were hypocrites because we weren’t even sitting together!

I wanted to stand up and explain about the spilled coffee or just make David be quiet. I did neither. I just kept taking notes. After the service, I found the head guy from the Civic Center and offered to mop the area. I like keeping my chamber clean.

“Some people spend thousands on a wedding because they want it to look good but they don’t invest in the marriage.”